The Five Men Ruby Never Had (And the One She Did)
by Serena Thorn
Summary: As Red, she had wished for love. As Ruby, she had longed for excitement. Only as both will she finally find all she's wanted.


**Title:** The Five Men Ruby Never Had (And the One She Did)  
**Summary:** As Red, she had wished for love. As Ruby, she had longed for excitement. Only as both will she finally find all she's wanted.  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Pairings:** Red/Peter, Red/Quinn, one-sided Red/Charming, one-sided Ruby/Billy, Ruby/Gold, Ruby/Victor  
**Spoilers:** 2x12  
**Word Count:** 921  
**Disclaimer:** Once Upon a Time is not owned by me, but by ABC. I'm simply borrowing these characters for non-profit entertainment.  
**A/N:** I've been shipping these two since, pretty much, 1x03 but didn't think anything would come of it. After 2x12 though, here I am.

* * *

Peter had been the first boy she had loved. Granny hadn't approved, but it was only after she had learned her own secret that she had finally understood why. But by then it had been too late. Peter was dead. And she was the reason why.

The moonlight had turned her into a monster that she couldn't control.

When she met Quinn she had found hope. She had thought she had found someone who could understand her and who wouldn't fear her. But he had enjoyed being what he was more than she thought she ever could.

And then the King's guards had found Snow, and Quinn had died too. And then her mother. From there her cloak had become more of a security blanket than it had originally been after that night with Peter. She would never fight her grandmother over wearing it again.

When helping James to find Snow she knew she had seen true love. She couldn't help but begin to long even more for it for herself. She didn't begrudge her friends their happiness, but she did wish she could know what it was like for herself. And possibly with someone like James. James hadn't judged her, he believed in her, he had protected her, he never feared her, and he had even helped her to not fear herself nearly as much.

In Storybrooke she had been Ruby. And Ruby liked to have fun, she longed for excitement, and for an escape from Storybrooke. Mr. Gold had been the closest thing to an escape she could find. Knowing how much her Granny would disapprove of their involvement had been a bit of a bonus. But for some reason, after Emma had arrived in town, it had ended and with little explanation.

Then there was Billy. She knew he liked her, like most of the men in town, but he was just almost too nice and too sweet. She couldn't see it ending without her breaking his heart and she didn't want that for him, or for her.

Then there had been Victor. When he had been Whale he had been known, and rightly so, as the town womanizer and had tried to get her to go home with him enough times for her to finally begin to roll her eyes at the mere sight of him.

But after that night at the docks, something had changed between them. She supposed he hadn't had many people to talk about his past with since the curse had broken and that he had basically chosen her because she was there and had literally pulled him back up from the edge.

As she couldn't remember ever seeing him with anyone he might consider a friend, she was even more sure that she had been the first one he had told about his past as Dr. Frankenstein, and about how he hadn't wished to be a monster. In return she had let him be the first since Granny and Snow to know about her own past as a monster. She had even gone so far as to tell him about Peter. The fact he hadn't run off but had instead continued listening as she spoke had been a welcome plus.

True most of her going to find him and even saving him had been because they all needed him to save the outsider who had quite literally crashed into town. But now she couldn't help but feel there was some deeper meaning in it. She had saved not only the one competent doctor in Storybrooke, but she had saved a fellow monster. A fellow monster who hadn't entirely intended to become what he had come to be known as. It seemed they had made a wordless agreement that that night at the docks would remain their secret, everything they had shared with each other and the reason for it.

Ruby found she liked the idea of that.

That following morning, after Victor's successful surgery on the outsider and after everyone else had finally gone home from the hospital, Ruby thought back to James and the wish she had made when they had been on the run together. How she had wished for someone who could understand her and who wouldn't judge her or even fear her. Someone who could possibly even relate to her, wolf or not.

"Monster to monster," Victor had said when he thanked her.

His words had made her smile, and as she thought about the sentiment after the fact, she found it even warmed her heart. He understood, as did she. She hadn't chosen to become a monster, and he had intended only to return life, not to take it.

Having thought she knew Dr. Whale as well as anyone should, Ruby had instead discovered that she enjoyed knowing Dr. Victor Frankenstein. He really wasn't Whale anymore. Instead he was a man who clearly needed a friend, one who could understand his own story and inner turmoil.

In that sense she doubted there was anyone in town she could relate to more; even to the point of him having tried to kill himself. Was her attempt to offer herself up to King George's angry mob really that different? She had believed she deserved to be dead too until James had helped her control the wolf.

More and more, since that night at the docks, Ruby found herself realizing they weren't alone anymore. Not now that Victor and she had truly found one another.

_Monster to monster._

The End


End file.
